Things That Annoy You in Fanfiction

[Xamusel]

Alright, time to revive the thread, and give it some fresh content.

Namely... I find it highly annoying when people don't go to an author for permission to write a spin-off of some sort. Case in point? TheInfamousMan's Fate:Zero Sense and Fate:Stay Away stories. TIM did not want that to have spin-offs, as it turned out.

Anyway, more will come later.

[Cherry Lover]

Honestly, given that all fanfiction is by definition a "spin-off", I'm not so sure about that. I can see the point of view of the original author, particularly if the spin-offs aren't very good but, at the same time, if Nasu came out and said "I don't want people writing fanfiction of my work", would we stop doing it? Plus, why should a particular author have a monopoly on a concept just because they did it first? Real authors get inspired by stories they read all the time, why should fanfiction be any different?

[Xamusel]

Er, *ahem* I didn't mean it like that. By that logic you provided, I'm guilty of it as well. However, what I was talking about was more like this: Suppose I had a story that was popular and good at the same time. Now, this story was so good, I was asked by someone to permit a spin-off to be written of it, and I want to know if the other author is able to write the spin-off to as great a degree as I did. Of course, then there's another author that wrote his/her spin-off of whatever I wrote, but without permission... and almost completely stole my work at the same time. Each case will vary, obviously, and by different amounts.

Note that I never said that a particular author should have a monopoly on a concept. I was talking about how I find it annoying that people tend to rip off the works of others and don't give the original authors credit (or ask for permission to write their own take on a story).

[The Man With All The Cute Boats]

Once again though how many people give nasu credit when they write any TM fanfiction?

Fanfiction is spinning off of someone else's work without their permission to begin with. Fanfiction that takes from others is about as rationalized to give notice of the original concept as I am to pray to the first person who made scrambled eggs when I make them.

Basically u silly

[Andoriol]

I find it irritating only when someone tries to claim the idea as their own when it can be shown it's been come up with before, and it's nice of people to say where they get inspiration from if it's from another fanfiction. Recognition's always nice.

Necessary? No. Nice? Yes.

[Xamusel]

@Nachos: At least a few people give Nasu credit... like myself.

No, seriously, I am one to do so.

[The Man With All The Cute Boats]

Yeah, but I mean if you're on a type-moon forum or on FF.net in one of the type moon sections (FSN, tsuki), people should already know where your stuff's from. And while being grateful of the experience he's given you, thanking nasu in a blurb in a language he can't even read would a)fall on deaf ears and b) be pretty much for its own sake instead of actually giving recognition because hey, if they're reading your type moon FF they already have the type-moon recognition.


@ Andy:Well being a liar's a dick move, yeah. But you shouldn't have to plaster your inspiration sources all over the place unless someone asks or something.

[Alice]

Purdy much what Nachos said. I mean, if someone's stealing a story wholesale, as in basically doing a find replace sort of thing with someone else's story, than that's a whole different kettle of fish whether it's fanfiction or not, but if it's just fanfiction of fanfiction? I don't see why fanfiction should get more precedence for protection than the very thing it was written from. Hell, unless it's terrible or troll fic, getting fanworks might actually be sort of a good sign, since it shows something about the work interests people enough to even write fanfiction of the fanfiction.

In other words, I echo Nachos on this one. There's far far far worse things in fanfiction than that.

For instance, completely and utterly changing so much that it hardly resembles the source material, with the characters not really resembling themselves either. I mean, there's AU, and then there's butchering the source material completely. I think that's one of the reasons High School AUs are so despised besides being so obnoxiously common and an excuse for the worse of shipping tropes, really, for doing both of these things. It's OK to take a different spin on things, that's why fanfiction exists after all, but at the same time, at least have respect for the source material, good god.

...probably all y'all are thinking of what I'm pointing at primarily here, but let's generally try to keep that to a minimum. There's been a touch too much drama here about said subject already, after all.

[The Man With All The Cute Boats]

I found a good high school AU of FSN

It's called Fate/Extra

(The tweest is that it's all a computer program)

[Alice]

That and there's still fightan' That's the thing about all them High School AUs, they take away the fightan'. Which sucks.

...Plus they tend to suck all the interesting stuff away too. Which Fate/Extra manages to avoid, thankfully, by bringing in new sorts of interesting. ...Whether the interesting being sucked away in other High School Aus is bad writing, trying to just make it nothing but high school drama, or both is up to you to decide~

[Arch-Magos Winter]

OK, let's go for a few here.

I hate fanfiction that totally ignores the main points of the source material, or doesn't actually even take anything from it in any way aside from a few character names(I can point out a few fics on this site like that...) and then has a Mary Sue OC that is also the child of two of the main characters. I mean, really, if you're going to do that you might as well skip calling it a fanfiction, and then call it what it is - Mary Sue Wish Fulfillment Wankfest.

[Kat]

I see what you did there.

[Arch-Magos Winter]

I see what you did there.

I have no idea what you're talking about. I'm not referencing any particular person. It's just something I'm ticked off about and may rant sometimes about as well.

[Kat]

Hue.

[Cherry Lover]

Er, *ahem* I didn't mean it like that. By that logic you provided, I'm guilty of it as well. However, what I was talking about was more like this: Suppose I had a story that was popular and good at the same time. Now, this story was so good, I was asked by someone to permit a spin-off to be written of it, and I want to know if the other author is able to write the spin-off to as great a degree as I did. Of course, then there's another author that wrote his/her spin-off of whatever I wrote, but without permission... and almost completely stole my work at the same time. Each case will vary, obviously, and by different amounts.

Note that I never said that a particular author should have a monopoly on a concept. I was talking about how I find it annoying that people tend to rip off the works of others and don't give the original authors credit (or ask for permission to write their own take on a story).

Well, I think expecting credit if someone uses your idea is fair enough. I'm not sure that having a veto on anyone doing so is, though. I can kind-of see your point, particularly when the spin-off is taking characters from the original and, even, a kind-of sequel to it, but it's not like Nasu gets to veto bad TM fanfiction, so I am not sure fanfic authors should get to do so either.

Once again though how many people give nasu credit when they write any TM fanfiction?

Fanfiction is spinning off of someone else's work without their permission to begin with. Fanfiction that takes from others is about as rationalized to give notice of the original concept as I am to pray to the first person who made scrambled eggs when I make them.

Basically u silly

As you point out below, though, that is a little different, because people already know that TM fanfiction is based around Nasu's work. That isn't necessarily true for fanfics that use other work as inspiration.

For instance, completely and utterly changing so much that it hardly resembles the source material, with the characters not really resembling themselves either. I mean, there's AU, and then there's butchering the source material completely. I think that's one of the reasons High School AUs are so despised besides being so obnoxiously common and an excuse for the worse of shipping tropes, really, for doing both of these things. It's OK to take a different spin on things, that's why fanfiction exists after all, but at the same time, at least have respect for the source material, good god.

...probably all y'all are thinking of what I'm pointing at primarily here, but let's generally try to keep that to a minimum. There's been a touch too much drama here about said subject already, after all.

Well, I think there is a place for stories with completely alternate settings. For example, if you make Sakura remain with the Tohsaka family, you're changing so much that she is going to be a very different character, but I think it's still an interesting story.

I also think that completely changing the setting but keeping the characters can be interesting in some situations. Some people are interested in the characters rather than the setting that they're in. And, I think doing so is certainly no worse than completely OC-filled Grail War fanfics or the like (where you keep the setting but discard the characters), which most people are perfectly fine with.

That and there's still fightan' That's the thing about all them High School AUs, they take away the fightan'. Which sucks.

...Plus they tend to suck all the interesting stuff away too. Which Fate/Extra manages to avoid, thankfully, by bringing in new sorts of interesting. ...Whether the interesting being sucked away in other High School Aus is bad writing, trying to just make it nothing but high school drama, or both is up to you to decide~

Not everyone likes the "fighting" aspect, though, so I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. High-School AU fics do have the issue that nothing much replaces it, though, yes.